Inspiration | ||||
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Studio album by Sam Rivers' Rivbea All-star Orchestra | ||||
Released | 1999 | |||
Recorded | September 28 and 29, 1998 | |||
Studio | Systems Two Recording Studio, Brooklyn, New York | |||
Genre | Jazz | |||
Length | 1:10:27 | |||
Label | BMG France 74321-64717-2 | |||
Producer | Steve Coleman, Sam Rivers, Sophia Wong | |||
Sam Rivers chronology | ||||
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Inspiration is an album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Sam Rivers. It was recorded during September 1998 at Systems Two Recording Studio in Brooklyn, New York, at the same sessions that yielded the album Culmination , and was released in 1999 by BMG France. On the album, Rivers is joined by members of the Rivbea All-star Orchestra: saxophonists Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Chico Freeman, Gary Thomas, and Hamiet Bluiett, trumpeters Baikida Carroll, James Zollar, Ralph Alessi, and Ravi Best, trombonists Art Baron, Joseph Bowie, and Ray Anderson, baritone horn player Joseph Daley, tubist Bob Stewart, bassist Doug Mathews, and drummer Anthony Cole. [1] [2] [3] [4]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
All About Jazz | [5] |
AllMusic | [1] |
The Penguin Guide to Jazz | [6] |
Tom Hull – on the Web | B+ [7] |
The album was nominated for "Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance" at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards. [8]
In a review for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine awarded the album a full 5 stars, calling it "astonishing." He wrote: "all of the compositions not only sound fresh, they sound visionary -- still ahead of their time. It's not only because the stellar musicians give vibrant, unpredictable performances, although that undeniably helps; Rivers' writing is the real key... Inspiration truly is a revelation, proving not only that Rivers retains all his creative power at the age of 75, but that avant-garde jazz can be as inviting as any other style without sacrificing any of its depth or daring." [1]
Bill Shoemaker of JazzTimes stated that Rivers's "current work has a more vibrant edge than 99.9% of the music now glutting the market," and commented: "Rivers' avant-icon status obscures the fact that his sensibility is pan-stylistic, and that, more often than not, the dense clusters and jarring voicings of his orchestra works are in the service of setting up tangy funk, Latin, and swing grooves for soloists." [9]
The authors of The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings awarded Inspiration a full 4 stars, and noted "the sheer originality of Rivers's concept: that he can mould an orchestra of highly individual performers so that it sounds like the expression of a single, idiosyncratic imagination." [6]
Writing for All About Jazz , Glenn Astarita remarked: "Big band fanatics and modern jazz aficionados should enjoy the heck out of this one. A most gratifying and noteworthy effort from the venerable Sam Rivers and his modern jazz all-stars!" [5]
Author Gary Giddins stated that the album "brims with the exhilaration exclusive to the form," and wrote: "The music is wonderfully schizoid; the dense voicings are dissonant, but the riffs and pithy solos are downright toasty." [10]
A writer for Mother Jones commented: "Imagine funk idol Maceo Parker falling under the sway of abstract expressionism, and you have an idea of how Rivers' new album combines aggressive dissonance, tricky rhythms, and unconventional grooves... At 77, Rivers has produced an album that any audacious young avant-gardiste would envy." [11]
All tracks composed by Sam Rivers.
The World Saxophone Quartet is an American jazz ensemble founded in 1977, incorporating elements of free jazz, R&B, funk and South African jazz into their music.
Hamiet Bluiett was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and composer. His primary instrument was the baritone saxophone, and he was considered one of the finest players of this instrument. A member of the World Saxophone Quartet, he also played the bass saxophone, E-flat alto clarinet, E-flat contra-alto clarinet, and wooden flute.
Loft jazz was a cultural phenomenon that occurred in New York City during the mid-1970s. Gary Giddins described it as follows: "[A] new coterie of avant-garde musicians took much of the jazz world by surprise... [T]hey interpreted the idea of freedom as the capacity to choose between all the realms of jazz, mixing and matching them not only with each other, but with old and new pop, R&B and rock, classical music and world music... [S]eemingly overnight new venues - in many instances, apartments or lofts - opened shop to present their wares." According to Michael Heller, "lofts were not an organization, nor a movement, nor an ideology, nor a genre, nor a neighborhood, nor a lineage of individuals. They were, instead, a meeting point, a locus for interaction." Heller stated that "loft practices came to be defined by a number of key characteristics, including (1) low admission charges or suggested donations, (2) casual atmospheres that blurred the distinction between performer and audience, (3) ownership / administration by musicians, and (4) mixed-use spaces that combined both private living areas and public presentation space." Regarding the music played in these venues, Michael J. Agovino wrote: "This was community music. Part of the point was that, free of the strictures of clubs, the music could be anything, go anywhere, go on for as long as it wanted." David Such stated that "the cutting contests, personality cults, and vices that characterized the jazz scene of the 1940s and 1950s were mostly missing." The scene was reviewed and documented by Giddins, Peter Occhiogrosso of the SoHo Weekly News, Leroi Jones, Robert Palmer, and Stanley Crouch.
Baikida Carroll is an American jazz trumpeter.
Coon Bid'ness is an album released by Julius Hemphill in 1975 on Arista featuring performances by Hemphill, Baikida Carroll, Abdul Wadud, Phillip Wilson, Arthur Blythe, Barry Altschul and Daniel Zebulon. The final track, "The Hard Blues," was recorded at the same recording session as Hemphill's debut album Dogon A.D.. After Hemphill's death in 1995, Freedom Records re-released the album as a CD under the name Reflections.
Revue is an album by the jazz group the World Saxophone Quartet released on the Italian Black Saint label. The album features performances and compositions by Hamiet Bluiett, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake and David Murray.
Live at Brooklyn Academy of Music is a live album by the jazz group the World Saxophone Quartet released on the Italian Black Saint label.
Requiem for Julius is an album by the jazz group the World Saxophone Quartet released by the Justin Time label. The album features performances by Hamiet Bluiett, John Purcell, Oliver Lake and David Murray and is dedicated to the band's founding member Julius Hemphill.
Experience is an album by the jazz group the World Saxophone Quartet released by the Canadian Justin Time label. The album features performances by Hamiet Bluiett, Oliver Lake, David Murray and Bruce Williams, with guests Craig Harris on trombone, Billy Bang on violin, Matthew Garrison on bass and Gene Lake on drums, and features the music of, and is dedicated to, Jimi Hendrix.
Political Blues is an album by the jazz group the World Saxophone Quartet released by the Canadian Justin Time label. The album features performances by Hamiet Bluiett, Jaleel Shaw, Oliver Lake and David Murray, with guests Craig Harris on trombone, Jeremy Pelt on trumpet, James "Blood" Ulmer on guitar, Jamaaladeen Tacuma on bass guitar, and Lee Pearson on drums.
Point of No Return is the debut album by the jazz group the World Saxophone Quartet released on the Moers Music label in 1977.
The Jazzpar Prize is an album by Pierre Dørge's New Jungle Orchestra with David Murray released on the Enja label in recognition of the awarding of the 1991 Danish Jazzpar Prize to Murray. The album was recorded in 1991 and released in 1992 and features performances by Murray, Pierre Dørge, Horace Parlan, Harry Beckett, Per Jörgensen, Jörg Huke, Jesper Zeuthen, Jacob Mygind, Irene Becker, Jens Skou Olsen, and Audun Kleive.
Crystals is an album by Sam Rivers released by Impulse! Records in 1974 in a stereo/quadraphonic format.
Live at the Public Theater is a live album by jazz composer, arranger, conductor and pianist Gil Evans recorded in New York in 1980 by Evans with an orchestra featuring Arthur Blythe, Hamiet Bluiett, and Lew Soloff and originally released from Japanese Trio label in two volumes. Integrated version was first released in 1986 from Japanese Crown Record's Break Time label as 2xCDs album, and one track was added in the release from Japanese Venus Records label of 1993.
Farewell is a live album by jazz composer, arranger, conductor and pianist Gil Evans which was released posthumously to address for the deceased. This album was recorded by King Records (Japan) in New York in 1986 featuring Evans with his Monday Night Orchestra which included Hamiet Bluiett, Bill Evans, and Johnny Coles and originally released in Japan on the King label.
Conversin' with the Elders is the fourth album by saxophonist James Carter recorded in late 1995 and early 1996 and released on the Atlantic label. The album features guest appearances by veteran musicians, including trumpeters Harry "Sweets" Edison and Lester Bowie, and saxophonists Hamiet Bluiett, Larry Smith and Buddy Tate.
Bud and Bird is a live album by Gil Evans that won the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 1989. Evans conducted the orchestra, which included Hamiet Bluiett, Bill Evans, and Johnny Coles.
Talking Horns is an album by the American jazz trumpeter Malachi Thompson recorded and released by the Delmark label in 2001.
Wildflowers: The New York Loft Jazz Sessions is a series of five albums recorded May 14–23, 1976 at Studio Rivbea, a loft jazz space in New York City, run by Sam Rivers and his wife Bea. The albums include performances by groups led by musicians such as Hamiet Bluiett, Anthony Braxton, Marion Brown, Dave Burrell, Andrew Cyrille, Oliver Lake, Jimmy Lyons, Ken McIntyre, Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre, Roscoe Mitchell, David Murray, Sunny Murray, Sam Rivers, Leo Smith, Henry Threadgill, and Randy Weston. The recordings were originally released in 1977 on the Douglas and Casablanca labels as five separate LPs, and were reissued in 1999 by Knit Classics as a 3-CD set.
Culmination is an album by multi-instrumentalist and composer Sam Rivers. It was recorded during September 1998 at Systems Two Recording Studio in Brooklyn, New York, at the same sessions that yielded the album Inspiration, and was released in 1999 by BMG France. On the album, Rivers is joined by members of the Rivbea All-star Orchestra: saxophonists Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Chico Freeman, Gary Thomas, and Hamiet Bluiett, trumpeters Baikida Carroll, James Zollar, Ralph Alessi, and Ravi Best, trombonists Art Baron, Joseph Bowie, and Ray Anderson, baritone horn player Joseph Daley, tubist Bob Stewart, bassist Doug Mathews, and drummer Anthony Cole.